CHAPTER XVA TRIAL FLIGHT
Tom Swift and Ned Newton watched the odd man curiously. Afterward Ned said he thought Mr. Damon had gone to the door to ascertain if his wife might be eavesdropping, since she did not altogether approve of many of the things he did in connection with the young inventor.
“I thought maybe he was going to get his checkbook,” Tom said later. He was always a very hopeful individual.
But when Mr. Damon returned to his seat after his tiptoeing visit to the closed door he remarked in a low voice:
“You can’t be too careful.”
“About what?” asked Tom, impressed by his friend’s manner.
“About letting your plans become known before you are ready to spring this new airline express on the public,” was the answer.
“Why, you don’t suspect any one in your own house, do you?” asked Ned.
“Not my wife, of course,” Mr. Damon answered. “But there have been several queer characters around here of late. Several men have called, trying to get me to hire them as a valet. Bless my necktie, as if I needed a valet! Of course I sent them away, but yesterday the maid let another one in while I was busy in my study, and the fellow had the impudence to walk right up to my door. My wife caught him standing there listening after the maid had gone away, and Mrs. Damon sent the fellow flying, I’ll tell you.
“I suspect, Tom, that he had something to do with the gang that is trying to get your new apparatus away from you. He must know that I am your friend and often go on trips with you, and possibly he thought he might get some information here, in a sneaking way. That’s why I wanted to make sure no one was out in the hall listening. It’s all right. I looked out through the crack and no one is there. Now go on with your explanation.”
Tom did, elaborating on his plans for a big aeroplane in two sections, the part where the passengers were to be carried being like a big autocar, able to move under its own power.
“It is this feature that will save a lot of time,” he explained. “After the first aeroplane starts from Long Island the passengers will not have to move out of their seats until they reach San Francisco. Or, if we start at night, in case it is found desirable to have overnight trips, a man can go to sleep in New York and awaken at the Golden Gate, that is, if he wants to sleep that long.”
“It’s a big undertaking!” said the odd man.
“But Tom can carry it through if any one can,” declared Ned.
“The worst of it is that it’s going to take a mint of money,” sighed the young inventor. “That’s why I’m calling on you and some of my other friends to take stock, Mr. Damon. How does it strike you?”
To the credit of Mr. Damon be it said that he did not hesitate a moment. He held out his hand to his friend and said:
“I’m with you, Tom Swift! I’ll invest all I can afford. I wish it was more, but I’ve spent a lot on that new aeroplane of mine that I nearly smashed. However, I have a few dollars left in the bank. Though you needn’t say anything to my wife about this,” he went on in a low voice as he got out his checkbook.
Tom and Ned smiled as they gave a promise of secrecy, and a little later the young inventor left with his first contribution toward financing the airline express—a check for five thousand dollars.
Tom Swift spent busy days during the next few weeks. Like all new enterprises, this one was not easy to start, though many of Tom’s friends, whom he approached with a plea that they buy stock which would pay big dividends if the plan succeeded, at once purchased blocks. Others required more persuasion, and not a few said they would buy stock if they could see the machines in operation.
“That’s what we’ve got to do, Ned,” decided the young inventor, when it was evident that the enterprise might fail through lack of capital. “We’ve got to show these Missouri birds that we can fly this combined auto and aeroplane. Gee, I’m sorry now Dad and I have all our ready money tied up in those other matters.”
“But can you build a trial machine?” asked the treasurer of the Swift concern.
“I can as soon as my patent papers come through from Washington,” Tom said. “That’s where the hitch is now. After all the machines we have made in our plant, it would be queer if we couldn’t build a speedy aeroplane of extra power and also a chassis to clamp on to carry the passengers. That’s where the patent comes in—the method of combining the two.”
“But I understood that the patents had been allowed,” said Mr. Damon, who was present. “That was the latest advice from your Washington lawyer.”
“Yes, I know. But several matters have come up since then. Some one is trying to throw a monkey wrench into the gear wheels, so to speak, and I suspect it is the same gang that tried to put me out of the way—the scoundrels headed by Schlump and Kenny. I think I shall have to make a trip to Washington myself.”
“Be careful, Tom,” warned Ned Newton. “They may get you on the way there.”
“I guess I can look out for myself,” was the answer.
But when Mary Nestor heard what Tom proposed to do, she added her warning to Ned’s. However, Tom was firm and then Mary delivered her ultimatum.
“If you go to Washington, I’m going, too,” she declared.
“Good!” cried Tom. “I’ve been wanting a little excursion with you, Mary, and we’ll make a party of it and take Ned and Helen along. That will be fun!”
“That’s the idea!” Ned declared. “It will be a bold gang that dares to start anything with the two girls along.”
It may be mentioned here that Tom’s patents were really of a three-fold nature. One consisted of the peculiar construction of the passenger car to be used in the ocean-to-ocean flight, the second was a patent on the method of clamping this car to the aeroplane, and the third covered the method of manufacturing the duralumin alloy of which the car and a part of the aeroplane were to be constructed. Ordinary duralumin is composed of ninety-four per cent. aluminum and the rest copper and magnesium; but Tom had a secret formula of his own, not only for mixing these ingredients, but also in the melting and forging processes. His duralumin he considered stronger than any ever used in an aeroplane and it was at least three per cent. lighter in weight than any which had ever been offered to him.
There is nothing like going yourself when you want a thing done, as Tom found, and he had not been many days in Washington, whither his three friends accompanied him, before he had matters connected with his patents straightened out and he was assured by a high government authority that his claim was original, valid, and would eventually be allowed, thus giving him the sole right to make airline express machines for a limited period.
Perhaps this action of the patent authorities was hastened when an old army officer, a friend of Tom’s father, heard about the matter and declared such a machine would be of great value to the United States in case of another war.
This officer impressed his views on certain friends of his in the patent office, and the result was that the usual leaden wheels in that institution began to move more rapidly.
“If you can wait long enough,” said General Malcolm, who had been of such service to Tom, “I believe I can even get you a government subsidy.”
“How long would it take to get the government to invest money in this new undertaking of mine?” Tom wanted to know.
“Oh, probably two or three years. A bill would have to be introduced in Congress—it might take four years.”
“I expect to make the first flight inside of a month,” Tom laughed.
Tom and his friends returned to Shopton, and then followed many strenuous days and nights of work for the young inventor. Those who had faith in Tom and those who knew and understood Ned Newton’s unusual knowledge and judgment in financial matters so talked to their friends that eventually outsiders put one hundred thousand dollars into the scheme and this, together with the money Mr. Damon and other acquaintances subscribed and with what Tom and his father had, gave them enough cash to build three planes and two cars.
Essentially there was nothing new or startling in the construction of either of these machines. My readers are all familiar with the general outline of an aeroplane. Beneath the fuselage which held the engine and a cockpit for the pilot and his helper was built a heavy frame to which could be clamped the passenger car.
This car was like a Pullman parlor car combined with a sleeper. It had some folding berths and also some easy chairs. There was a small dining room and a buffet kitchen, and many conveniences were installed. Tom limited the number of passengers to be carried on any one trip to ten, saying he could enlarge the cars if he found the machine was going to be a success.
In due time the two cars and the three planes received their last coats of varnish, the powerful engines were installed after a rigid block test, and one day Tom announced to Ned that all was in readiness for a trial flight.
“Want to come along?” asked the young inventor.
“Sure!” was the quick answer. “Anybody else going?”
“Yes. Mr. Damon is game and Father insists on accompanying us. I think I’ll take Koku along—he might come in handy in case anything should happen.”
It was decided to make the start from the big field outside of the Swift plant, and one morning one of the planes and its accompanying passenger car was rolled out on the level stretch. To make the test under the same conditions that would prevail when the airline express was in service, Tom and his friends entered the passenger car at one end of the field.
“We will imagine,” explained Tom, “that we have just landed here from the plane that brought us from Long Island to Chicago on the first lap of the transcontinental flight. Now we will run over and attach ourselves to the other plane.”
As has been said, the passenger car could move under its own power, as can an automobile. Tom started the motor and skillfully guided the car under the waiting aeroplane. In a moment workmen had fastened the clamps.
“Let her go!” Tom called to the pilot in the aeroplane, and the big propellers began to revolve with a thundering sound. The engine seemed working perfectly and a moment later the whole machine—the airline express—began to roll forward across the field. There was a moment of doubt as to whether or not the aeroplane would raise itself and the heavy weight it had to carry, but Tom had made his calculations well, and, to his delight and that of his friends, the machine began to soar upward.
“Hurray!” cried Ned. “She’s doing it!”
“Yes, we’re off on the first real flight, anyhow,” agreed Tom.
“It works better than I expected,” Mr. Swift said. All along he had been a bit skeptical about this new scheme.
A little later they were sailing over Lake Carlopa and Mr. Damon, looking down from one of the observations of the car, said:
“Aren’t we flying a bit low, Tom?”
“Yes, I think we are,” agreed the young inventor. “Put her up a bit!” he signaled to the pilot through the speaking tube.
Back came the answer:
“I can’t! Something has gone wrong! I’m losing power! I’m afraid we’re in for a fall!”
CHAPTER XVIJASON JACKS
Just for a moment or two Tom Swift wished he were in the motor cockpit of the plane instead of in the passenger car with his father and his friends. He had an idea he might so manipulate the controls as to cause the falling plane to increase speed and keep on flying until a safe landing could be made.
But in an instant this idea passed. Tom had full confidence in his mechanician, and realized if Harry Meldrum could not prevent a fall Tom himself could not, for Meldrum, taught in the Swift school of flying, was a thoroughly competent and resourceful airman.
“What’s wrong?” Tom asked his engineer through the tube.
“Oil pump has blown out a gasket! The engine is heating. It’s got to stop soon and we’ll have to come down—in the lake, I guess,” was the grim finish of the report.
“Well, I’ve landed in worse places,” remarked Tom.
“Is anything going to happen?” his father wanted to know.
“I’m afraid there is,” the young inventor answered. “We’re being forced down. I thought everything was all right with the machinery, but you never can tell.”
“Bless my accident insurance policy! Do you think we’ll go down right in the water, Tom?” gasped Mr. Damon.
“It begins to look so,” was the reply. “But perhaps better there than on land—there won’t be such a shock. The plane has floating compartments, and so has this car—I had them built in as a precaution against water landings. I don’t believe there will be any real danger.”
There was no doubt about it—the plane was gradually settling lower and lower—ever coming nearer to the surface of Lake Carlopa.
“She’s slowing up, Tom,” remarked Ned, as he listened to the throbs and pulsations of the motor above them.
“Yes, I’m afraid we’re in for it,” came the response. “Can’t you make any emergency repairs, Meldrum?” he asked the mechanician.
“Bert’s trying, but it doesn’t seem of much use,” was the answer. Bert Dodge was the assistant engineer, and fully as competent as his chief.
“This settles one thing,” remarked Tom, as he glanced out of the car window. “On the next flight I’ll have a duplicate oiling system installed.”
“Brace yourselves, everybody! We’re in for a ducking!” came the cry.
The next moment the big new aeroplane and its attached passenger car plunged into Lake Carlopa with a mighty splash. For a moment it seemed that they would be engulfed and all drowned before they could make egress from the plane and car. But Meldrum had guided the machine down on a long angle so that the water was struck a glancing blow. In effect, the lower surface of the car and the tail of the plane slid along the surface of the water for some distance. This neutralized some of the force of the impact, and then, though the machine settled rather deeply in the water, it did not sink. The air compartments prevented that.
However, help was at hand. A number of motor boats were out on the lake, their occupants watching the trial flight of the new airline express. When it was known that an accident had happened, these craft speeded to the rescue. As soon as the boats drew near the men in the plane and those in the car climbed outside and thence were taken off in the boats.
“Looks as if it was going to be a total loss, Tom,” said Mr. Damon gloomily, as the craft settled lower and lower in the water.
“It’s bad enough,” Tom admitted, ruefully shaking his head, as the boat that had taken him off circled about theFalcon, as Tom had christened his first machine. “But even if she sinks to the bottom I believe I can raise her. The lake isn’t very deep here.”
However, it was not quite as bad as that. TheFalconwas only partly submerged, and there she lay, water-bound, in the lake. Her actions decided Tom to install more air-tight compartments and make the car lighter, which would insure its floating higher in case of another water drop.
“Well, there’s nothing more we can do now,” decided the young inventor. “If you’ll take me ashore, please,” he said to his rescuer, “I’ll make arrangements for getting theFalconout.”
He gave orders to this effect as soon as he reached his shop, and when Mr. Swift, with a dubious shake of his head said:
“I’m afraid this is a failure, Tom! It’s too much for you.” The young inventor with a determined air answered:
“I’ve never given up anything yet, and I’m not going to begin now! I see where I made some mistakes and I’m going to correct them.”
And when the plane and the car were raised and brought to shore—being found to have suffered little damage—Tom started his reconstruction work with more vim than before.
However, the accident, while it was not a serious one from a mechanical standpoint, had a bad effect on Ned’s campaign to raise funds for putting the airline express into actual service. True as it is that nothing succeeds like success, nothing is more dampening to a money campaign than failure. Capital seems very timid in the face of failure, and deaf ears were turned to Ned’s urgent appeal to the public to buy stock. For while Tom was working on the mechanical end, Ned looked after the business interests.
“Well, Ned, how goes it?” asked the young inventor at the close of a hard day’s work when Tom himself had been much cheered by the progress he had made in lightening his passenger car and installing a dual oiling system on the plane.
“It doesn’t go at all,” was the somewhat gloomy answer. “People seem afraid to risk their money. If you could only make a successful flight, Tom, or get some millionaire to invest about a hundred thousand dollars without really seeing the thing fly, we’d be all right.”
“I think I’ll be more successful in the first proposition than in the second,” replied Tom, with a smile. “I don’t know many millionaires who are letting go of dollars in hundred thousand lots.”
“In fact, Tom, we’re almost at the end of our financial rope. We’ve got just about enough to complete the improvements you have begun.”
“After that I’ll try another flight. If that succeeds I think public confidence will be restored,” returned Tom. “If we fall again—well——”
“You’ll give up, I suppose,” finished Ned.
“Not at all!” was the quick reply. “You’ll find some other means of financing the thing. This is going to succeed, Ned! I’m going to make it! We’ll go from ocean to ocean by daylight!”
Tom banged his fist down on his desk with force enough to spill some ink out of the bottle, and then, getting up from his chair, began putting on his coat.
“Where are you going—out to hunt for a kind millionaire?” asked Ned.
“No; that’s your end of the job. I’m going for a ride with Mary,” was the smiling reply. “I want to get some of the cobwebs out of my brain. I can’t do any more now, and I promised Mary I’d take her for a spin in the electric runabout. It’s working all right, I suppose?” he asked, for Ned had been using that speedy machine in his financial campaign.
“Yes, it works well, Tom—faster than ever. And I hope things will take a turn for the better to-morrow.”
“So do I. See you later,” and Tom was off to keep his appointment with Mary Nestor.
Tom and Mary were riding along a quiet country road back of a little village when Mary observed just ahead of them an old man driving a horse hitched to a light carriage.
“Speaking of millionaires, Tom,” she said, “there goes one.”
“Where?” he asked.
“There! Jason Jacks. He has several millions, it’s said, but he holds on to them. Father knows him.”
“Lucky boy!” exclaimed Tom. “I wish I were you, J. J.!”
“Well, I don’t!” came promptly from Mary. “If you were Jason Jacks, I wouldn’t be out riding with you, Tom Swift!”
“Why not?” he demanded quizzically.
“Because he’s old, he hasn’t any teeth——”
“Well, you don’t want to be bitten, do you?” joked Tom.
“No, of course not. But he’s got a mean disposition, he’s homely——”
“Thanks!” interrupted Tom, with a laugh. “That’s an implied compliment, I take it.”
“Take whatever you like,” laughed Mary.
“I’d like to take a few thousands from Millionaire Jason Jacks,” retorted the young man. “Still, if you feel that way about him, Mary, I’m just as glad to be what I am,” and Tom—well, it is affairs of no outsider what he did just then.
The look which passed between him and Mary changed in a moment to a glance of alarm as the girl pointed to the carriage ahead of them and exclaimed:
“Oh, Tom! I believe that horse is running away!”
“I pretty near know it is!” was the answer, as Tom began to speed up the electric runabout.
“Oh, Mr. Jacks will be thrown out,” went on Mary. “He doesn’t seem to know how to manage that animal! And there’s a dangerous part of the road just ahead—it goes around a curve and close to the edge of a cliff! Oh, Tom, what are you going to do?”
CHAPTER XVIITHE AIRLINE STARTS
Mary Nestor’s reason for putting her question to the young inventor was because Tom was speeding up the electric auto and guiding it along the road in the direction of the runaway horse. For that the animal was in a frenzy and was now running away was apparent to both the young people.
“What are you going to do, Tom?” repeated Mary.
“I’m going to save Mr. Jacks if I can before he gets to the dangerous part of the road,” answered the young inventor. “If I can run up alongside of him, I may be able to lift him out of his carriage in case there is a likelihood of his going down the gully. Is the road very narrow there, Mary?”
“Yes, it is—hardly wide enough for two between the side of the cliff on the left and the edge of the gully on the right.”
“Then there’s not much chance of driving the runabout between him and the edge of the gully,” reasoned Tom. “I might go in myself. Luckily he’s driving on the left side of his buggy and this car has a right-hand drive. I can reach right over and grab him. And when I get near enough to do that, Mary, I want you to take the steering wheel of this car and hold it steady. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try, Tom.”
“You’ve got to do it if we’re to save his life.”
“Very well then, Tom, I will,” returned Mary in a quiet voice, and Tom knew she would not fail him. “How fast the horse is going!” she added.
The light buggy whirled around a curve on two wheels in a manner to make Mary catch her breath. Tom gave a low whistle. Then as the runabout made the same curve, Tom saw that the road ahead was straight but narrow. On one side, the left, rose a high cliff of rock, and on the right hand was a deep gully, the road running along its very edge.
“Oh, Tom, do you think you can catch him in time?” asked Mary anxiously. “There’s another curve, just ahead, and if the horse goes around that as fast as it is going now it will go over the edge and Mr. Jacks will be killed!”
“I’ve got to get him before that happens,” declared Tom grimly. “The horse will never be born that can beat my runabout.” Not idly had Tom’s electric machine been called “the speediest car on the road,” and now it surely was speeding.
Though the frantic horse did his best, it was naught against the power of the batteries concealed in Tom’s car, and in a few moments the young inventor was driving along the narrow road on even terms with the swaying carriage in which sat a white-faced man. He was sawing on the reins and trying by his voice to halt the horse, but without effect.
“The curve is just ahead, Tom,” warned Mary.
“All right,” he answered. “You take the wheel now. I’m going to stand up, reach over, and pull him into this car. Keep close to the face of the cliff—it’s our only chance!”
A moment later Tom rose in his seat, and as his hands left the steering wheel Mary leaned over and took charge of guiding the car. Exerting all his strength, Tom caught hold of Mr. Jacks under the arms and fairly pulled him from his seat. Luckily the old man was frail and light, or Tom could not have done it.
“Here! Here!” cried the frightened horseman. “What—what——”
But the breath was fairly choked out of him as Tom hauled him into the runabout and jammed him down on the seat between Mary and himself. Then Tom grabbed the wheel, and put on the brakes with all his might, for the dangerous curve was just ahead.
On sped the maddened horse, the buggy bouncing up off the uneven road. Just as the runabout slowed to a stop the mad animal swung around the curve. It did not make it, for its speed was too great, and a moment later Mary gave a cry of pity as the ill-fated brute shot over the edge of the cliff, dragging the light buggy with it. There was a rattle of gravel, a shower of stones, a weird cry from the horse, which must have sensed its doom, and then the end came.
Down the precipitous cliff had plunged the animal, crashing to death on the rocks below amid the splinters of the little carriage. Up above on the road, close to the rocky face of the cliff, sat the three in the runabout—a trembling, aged man, a white-faced girl, and Tom Swift, flushed by his exertions.
“Well—well,” stuttered Jason Jacks, when he could get his breath, “I guess I’ve had a narrow escape. My—my horse went over the cliff, didn’t he?”
“I’m afraid he did,” answered Tom grimly.
“Well, I’m just as glad,” went on the millionaire.
“Oh, Mr. Jacks!” exclaimed Mary.
“Ha! you know me, do you, young lady? Well, the reason I said that is because if he’s that kind of an animal, likely to run away without warning on a dangerous road—as he did—I don’t want ever to drive him again, and I wouldn’t want anybody else to. I only bought him the other day, and I’m glad I found out his trick in time. But let me see—you know me. Do I know you?” and he glanced sharply at the now blushing girl.
“I think you know my father, Mr. Jacks,” she replied. “He is Mr. Nestor, and I have seen you at our house.”
“Oh, of course! To be sure—Mary Nestor. Well, I’m much obliged to you—and more obliged to this young man for saving my life. What’s your name?” he asked bluntly.
“Tom Swift.”
“Tom Swift. Oh, yes, I’ve heard that name before. You have a plant in Shopton, haven’t you? You make motor boats and such things?”
“Yes, I have invented a few things,” Tom modestly admitted.
“Um—yes,” murmured the millionaire. “I’ve heard of you. Well, I’m too much upset to thank you properly now. Could you leave me at my home?”
“Glad to,” answered Tom. “Do you want to drive around the road at the bottom of the cliff and find out about your horse?”
“I guess there isn’t much left of him, young man,” was the grim answer. “He’s had his last run. It was a narrow escape for me. How did you happen to be right on the spot?”
“Just by chance,” Tom replied.
He drove back to the millionaire’s home, declining an invitation to come in. Then Tom and Mary went on, and when later in the evening he left her at her home, she said with shining eyes:
“Oh, Tom, suppose he should?”
“Should what, Mary?”
“Give you ten or twenty thousand dollars for saving his life? He could well afford to do it—he’d never miss the money—and then you could finish the new airline machines.”
“I don’t want any reward for saving lives, Mary. Besides, he’d have to give you a share. If you hadn’t been with me I never could have saved him.”
“Nonsense, Tom!”
“No nonsense about it!”
It was the next day that Jason Jacks called at Tom Swift’s office, driving up in a handsome two-horse carriage with a footman in livery. For the old millionaire was eccentric and liked to imagine he was living in the old times. He never could be induced to ride in an automobile.
“I’ve come to reward you, Tom Swift, for saving my life,” began Mr. Jacks, taking out his check book.
“Excuse me, sir,” said Tom, firmly but in respectful tones, “you can’t do anything of the kind.”
“Can’t do what?” Mr. Jacks asked sharply.
“Reward me for saving your life. Any one else would have done the same if he had had the chance, and I would have done the same for any one else.”
“Yes—I suppose so,” slowly admitted Mr. Jacks, and it was easy to see that Tom’s refusal pleased him rather than otherwise. “Human life can’t be bought, though I hold mine at a high price. But look here, young man, since you won’t accept a reward, will you let me do you a favor in return for the one you did me? That’s fair, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” admitted Tom.
“Well, then, I’ve been making inquiries about you, and I hear you are trying to launch a new invention. I don’t go in much for those things myself—I have no use for aeroplanes, motor boats, or automobiles, though I admit they have their place in the world, and I own stock in several motor companies. But I won’t ride in them.
“Now, I hear you are contemplating an airline express to San Francisco, but you haven’t had much success with it so far. Am I right?”
“Yes,” admitted Tom. “I have no hesitation in saying I am a bit short of cash to complete some improvements.”
“Then will you let me help finance the thing?” asked Mr. Jacks. “Oh, on a strictly business basis,” he added quickly, as he saw Tom about to refuse. “I’ll buy stock the same as I would in any other enterprise, and if it succeeds I expect to be paid my profit, the same as other investors. If it fails—well, it won’t be the first time I have lost money, though I don’t make a practice of that,” and he chuckled dryly.
“I’d be glad to sell you some stock,” said Tom quickly.
“All right then, young man, we can do business. I’ll have my secretary see you in a few days. I don’t like to be under obligations to anybody.”
“Neither do I,” retorted Tom; “and I feel sure that you will get a good return on what you invest with me. I’m going to succeed.”
“Well, if you do half as cleverly as you did when you pulled me out of that runaway, you’ll win!” predicted Mr. Jacks.
A few days later he invested fifteen thousand dollars in Tom’s new enterprise, taking stock to that value, and promising that if Tom could make six successful trips each way, between Long Island and the Golden Gate, carrying passengers as arranged, he would invest one hundred thousand dollars more and perhaps even a larger sum.
“Hurray!” cried Tom when he heard this news from Ned, who, of course, had attended to the details of this matter. “Now our success is assured!”
“Oh, I’m so glad!” exclaimed Mary, when he told her.
Busy scenes were the order of the day and night at the Swift plant after this much-needed new capital was paid in. Tom kept his men busy making improvements in theFalcon, and at last the day arrived when a final test was to be made.
Once more Tom, Ned, Mr. Damon, Koku, and some others took their places in the car. Mr. Swift declined to come, saying it was too much for his nerves. The car rolled over the field, was clamped to the chassis of the big aeroplane, and up in the air it rose.
This time there was no accident, and off above the lake and over the country soared theFalcon, flying beautifully. “It’s a success!” cried Ned.
“I want to make a test landing and see how long it takes to unclamp the car and fasten it to the other plane,” said Tom, before he would permit himself to exult.
This test was successfully met, and up rose the second plane, carrying the car, just as if the scene had taken place on the field in Chicago, the end of the first lap of the proposed airline express.
Not until then did Tom permit himself to see visions of complete success. But after another landing had been made and when the car had been rolled to the third plane, it was evident that the scheme could be carried out. The third plane did not go up, not being quite ready.
“Of course,” Tom said to his friends when they were talking it over, “this doesn’t mean that we can make the time which I hope is possible—sixteen hours from coast to coast—but I’m going to make a big effort for those figures.”
In the next few weeks matters were rushed to completion. A landing field was secured on Long Island, another in Chicago, one on the outskirts of Denver, and the last one at the Golden Gate. The route was mapped out with care, and guide posts and signal towers were placed in position.
Then, on a certain day, after many exhaustive tests, it was decided to inaugurate the first schedule of the airline express. The two planes had been sent, one to Chicago and the other to Denver, while the third was waiting on the Long Island field, where the passenger car had been taken.
Newspaper reporters, cameramen, moving picture operators, and many spectators were on hand.
“All aboard!” cried Tom, as he gave the signal to start. As he was about to close the door of the car, which would soon be soaring aloft, a boy ran across the field and thrust into the hands of the young inventor a piece of paper.
“What is it?” demanded Tom.
“Message for you! Man gave me a dollar to deliver it just as you started,” panted the boy.
Then, before he could answer, though he had an ominous feeling, Tom felt the car being lifted off the ground. The airline express had started!
CHAPTER XVIIICHICAGO
Strange and mingled were the feelings Tom Swift had as his great experiment was started. There was exultation mingled with apprehension. Exultation that he had at last triumphed over many difficulties and the plots of his enemies and had reached the point of starting the service which might revolutionize travel. Apprehension lest he might fail, and also apprehension over this latest happening—the giving to him of this note.
It had a sinister appearance—this hasty message delivered in such a manner. It was in keeping with some other things that had happened of late.
But Tom’s chief concern now was to see that his new craft got safely into the air and on its way. He could deal later with those who sought to steal from him the fruits of his labor and his brain.
So, overcoming his natural curiosity to see what the note contained, Tom resolutely thrust it into his pocket and gave his whole attention to directing the management of theFalcon, which was the plane and accompanying car selected to hop off on the first leg of the transcontinental trip. The other planes were named, respectively, theEagleand theOsprey.
This last name was chosen by Tom as fitting for the plane in which he hoped to ride when he sighted the Pacific coast and ocean. For the osprey is a fish-hawk, and Ned agreed with Tom that it was a most appropriate name for a craft in which they hoped to sight an ocean with its millions of fish.
Tom, together with Ned, Mr. Damon, and some assistants, rode in the hanging car, while in the cockpit of the aeroplane above them were Harry Meldrum and Bert Dodge, the two able mechanicians. Once he had seen for himself how the car behaved, Tom intended to take his shift in the cockpit, piloting the plane part of the time.
Tom had invited Mr. Jacks to make the first trip, but the eccentric millionaire, whose money had enabled the initial planes to be finished and who had promised to invest a hundred thousand dollars more in case Tom could successfully complete six round trips, had smiled as he shook his head.
“None of that for me!” he had answered. “Runaway horses are dangerous enough, without tempting fate in the shape of an aeroplane. I wouldn’t go up for a million dollars, Tom. But I wish you all success!”
And success is what Tom hoped for as the craft rose from the ground on this, its first official trip.
“Well, Tom, she’s moving!” exclaimed Ned, as they rose higher and higher on a long slant off the landing field and headed toward the west.
“Yes, we got off in good shape,” agreed Tom, as he noted various instruments and gages on the walls of the car which indicated their speed upward as well as forward and gave their height above the earth.
“It certainly is fine,” asserted Mr. Damon. “Bless my upper berth! it beats traveling in a Pullman. And if you can do as you say, Tom, and keep us in this car right through to the end of the journey in San Francisco, it will be a marvel. No change, nothing to worry about, and traveling as clean as in a bath tub! It’s great! Bless my toothbrush, it’s great!”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say there was nothing to worry about,” remarked Tom, with a laugh, as he signaled to the mechanician for more speed.
“What do you mean—that letter the kid gave you?” asked Ned, in a low voice.
“No, I haven’t looked at that yet. Probably it’s from some one who begged for a free ride,” Tom answered. “But I mean the race isn’t over until we have sighted the Golden Gate. We’ve got to be there before dark to make a success of this airline express, and we’ve got to travel pretty fast—averaging two hundred miles an hour for over fifteen hours. I hope we can do it, but I haven’t given up worrying lest we fail.”
“Oh, we’ll do it all right!” declared Mr. Damon.
“Sure!” added Ned, though, truth to tell, he could understand and appreciate Tom’s feelings, knowing, as he did, something of mechanics and the slight defect in a piece of machinery that might throw all calculations out.
TheFalconwas now rapidly gaining height and speed, though, comfortably housed as they were in the car, the occupants felt no unpleasant sensations.
If one has ever ridden in an aeroplane he knows the swift, easy, gliding motion of the car. It is like nothing on earth, for there is absolutely no motion felt as in riding in an automobile or motor boat. There are none of the bumps of the roads, nor the swaying or rolling of water travel.
Of course there are “air pockets,” and when these are encountered even the best airship may take a sudden drop, which sensation is slightly felt. And if one exposes one’s face or hands or other part of the body to the rush of air, there is a most distinct sensation felt. But the cowl of the cockpit protects those in it from the terrific rush of wind, the pressure of which at two hundred and six miles an hour, is tremendous; and of course those housed in the car felt nothing.
So it was like making a journey in a dream, almost, and once the passengers were up above the earth there was nothing by which their progress could be gaged, as there is in a railroad train, when telegraph poles, fence posts, and the scenery seem to rush past at great speed.
So perfectly were the powerful motors running that in a short time the gages showed that the great speed of two hundred miles an hour had been attained. But Tom wanted to do better than this, especially on the first part of the journey, between Long Island and Chicago.
“The more time we make on the start the less we’ll have to worry about when we begin on the third lap—over the mountains,” he said to Ned. “I’ll go up into the cockpit myself soon. I just want to see that everything is all right here.”
This did not take long. A full complement of passengers was not carried on this initial trip, and there was more than room for all of them in the comfortable chairs. Koku had to be content with a bench, for no ordinary chair was large enough for him, and to his delight Eradicate was allowed to take charge of the small kitchen, where a buffet lunch would be served at noon, and other refreshments as needed.
“Ah eben gib dat giant suffin in case he git hungry,” chuckled Eradicate, who seemed to forget his jealous enmity against the big man in his delight at being near Tom and allowed to serve.
After making a round of the car and seeing that everything was well, Tom signaled up to Meldrum that he was going to take charge of the driving of the plane, asking Meldrum to come down below. There was an enclosed companionway, or ladder, by which the plane cockpit could be reached through the roof of the detachable car.
“Hadn’t you better look at that note before you go up?” suggested Ned, motioning to the pocket in which Tom had put the letter the boy had delivered to him at the last minute.
“That’s so—I almost forgot about it,” said the young inventor, with a laugh. “But it’s too late to answer it—we’re quite a way from the starting point.”
This was true. It had taken only a few minutes for them to soar over New York City, with its forest of tall buildings, then over the Hudson, across Jersey City, and so out on the long straight air line that led to Chicago.
Tom pulled out the crumpled missive and ripped open the envelope. As he read the few lines a look of anger came over his face.
“What is it?” asked Ned.
“Read it yourself,” Tom answered.
And Ned scanned these lines: